Al-Fawāʾid wal-Zuhd wal-Raqāʾiq wal-Marāthī by Jaʿfar al-Khuldī

Jeremy Farrell, MA Arabic Language & Literature UCLA '12

Abstract
This piece provides a biographical note on the Baghdadi mystic Jaʿfar al-Khuldī (d. 309/959) as well as a translation and edition of the Dar al-Kutub al-Maṣriyyah MS for his work al-Fawāʾid wal-Zuhd wal-Raqāʾiq wal-Marāthī, his longest independent surviving work. al-Khuldī was a leading ṣūfī of Baghdad and the premier ṣūfī biographer of his age, bridging the era between seminal mystical %gures such as al-Khiraz and al-Junayd and the %rst extant biographical and hagiographical works of the ṣūfī tradition from the 10th and 11th centuries. As a source for many important later hagiographies, a better understanding of his life and literary proclivities will further inform our understanding of the development of Islamic mysticism, particularly in relation to the in&uence of ascetic %gures (zuhhād) and ideas on its development.

Baghdadi ṣū%sm, especially as practiced by al-Junayd (d. 302/915) and his contemporaries in the late 3rd/9th century, has become the locus of much academic study concerning the rise, variegation and success of Islamic mysticism.1 Among the most remarkable achievements of the following century of ṣūfī activity both inside and out of Baghdad was to connect, through hagiography,2 their own spiritual understandings and insights to the wide theological, practical and political heritage left by this seminal generation of notable personalities and beyond - to al-Ḥasan alBaṣrī, Dhū ʾl-Nūn al-Miṣrī, the Prophet Muḥammad, and even Adam.3 Among the earliest and most historically important of these hagiographical works we %nd: al-Sarrāj's (d. 988) K. al-Lamaʿ, alSulamī's Ṭabaqāt al-Ṣū(yyah (d. 412/1021), and Qushayrī's (d. 466/1074) Risālah.4 These indispensable references shared as a source two works by the Baghdadi Jaʿfar Nuṣayr al-Khuldī, Hikāyāt al-Awliyāʾ and Ḥikāyāt al-Mashāyikh.5 Knowing this, it is puzzling that he has not attracted more signi%cant
1 The most outstanding work in this %eld is Ahmet Karamustafa. Su(sm: The Formative Period. University of California Press: Berkeley (2007), esp. Chs. 1 & 3. 2 See: Jawid Mojadeddi. The Biographical Tradition in Su(sm. Curzon: New York (2001); John Renard. Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment and Servanthood. University of California Press: Berkeley (2008), and for a more global perspective, its companion Tale's of God's Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation. University of California Press: Berkeley (2009). 3 For one example of pre-Muḥammad %gures in ṣūfī literature, see: Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Bunī. Shams al-Maʿārif al-Kubrā. 4 For references to al-Khuldī in al-Sarrāj: Kitāb al-Lumʿ, ed. R. Nicholson, p. 45; translated in J. Nurbakhsh, Su%sm IV, pp. 38-9. Also: “Jaʿfar al-Khuldī,” Biographical Encyclopedia of Su(s: Central Asia & Middle East., ed. N. Hanif. Sarrup & Sons: New Delhi (2002). For Qushayrī: Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Qushayri. Al-Risala al-qushayriyya ( ʿilm al-tasawwuf, trans. Alexander Knysh. Garnet & Ithaca Press: London (2007), pp. 12-14, 24, 28, 35-7, 51, 68, 170, 174, 181-2, 196-7, 211, 216, 246, 251, 289, 298, 303, 308, 340, 368, 370. For al-Sulamī's impact on medieval ṣūfī literature and modern academic study of Islamic mystics, see: Bowering, “al-Sulamī,” EI2. Al-Khuldī was also an important relator for a di+erent Sulamī work, Dhikr an-nisāʾ almutaʿabbidāt aṣ-Ṣū(yyāt. Rkia E. Cornell. Fons Vitae: Louisville (1999). 5 This importance is stated plainly in al-Hujwīrī. Kashf al-Maḥjūb, ed. RA Nicholson, pp. 156-7: “He is the well-known biographer of the saints. He has many sublime sayings. In order to avoid spiritual conceit, he attributed to di+erent persons the anecdotes which he composed in illustration of each topic.” From the The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4: “Abū Saʿīd al-Aʿrābī (d. 952) composed the %rst “history” of Ṣū%sm, entitled Ṭabaqāt al-Nussāk, while another direct

attention as a historical or literary in&uence for 10th century ṣū%sm both in and out of Baghdad.6 We proceed now with the longest of al-Khuldī's extant, independent works, al-Fawāʾid wal-Zuhd walRaqāʾiq wal-Marāthī. While the scope of our present work is modest, through further study of alKhuldī's extant works7 it will be possible to form a more complete historical picture of the vital role he played in transmitting the bedrock of all later ṣūfī hagiography in terms of content, creed and style. The Author His name is classically given as Al-Shaykh al-Imām al-Qudwah al-Muḥaddith Abū Muḥammad Jaʿfar ibn Nuṣayr ibn Qāsim al-Baghdādi al-Khawwāṣ al-Khuldī, and from these nisbahs we are able to glean some insight into his life. He was born in Baghdad in 253 H/857 CE, died there on 21 Ramaḍan 349/19 November 959, and was buried in the al-Shunīziyyah cemetery by the graves of prominent ṣūfīs Sarī al-Saqaṭī, Maʿrūf al-Kharkī and al-Junayd. For some time he seems to have sold palm leaves (khūṣ) to make a living as a khawwāṣ, although nothing is known about when he began or stopped this practice. It was al-Junayd who conferred upon him the nisbah of al-Khuldī, as indicated in al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī: “Junayd was asked about an issue and said [to Jaʿfar], ‘Answer them,’ which he did. Junayd then said, ‘O Khuldī, where did you get this answer from?’, and hence it stuck.” Junayd was referring to the section of Baghdad known as al-Khuld, site of an ʿAbbāsid palace named Qasr alKhuld on the banks of the Tigris River which Harūn al-Rashīd had inhabited, although Jaʿfar protested that neither he nor any of his forebears had ever lived in the neighborhood. Despite this insistence, al-Dhahabī, too, o+ers Jaʿfar’s residence in this district as the reason for the nisbah. He was a well known %gure in early 10th century Baghdad and is counted among the most outstanding exponents of the ṣūfī circles there: “It has been said, 'The wonders (ajāʾib) of su%sm in Baghdad are: al-Murtʿash's mystical sayings (nukat)8, al-Shiblī's advice (ishārāt)9, and al-Khuldī's stories (ḥikāyāt).'” There is no mention of his parents, wife or children in the various sources.
disciple of Junaid, Abū Muḥammad Jaʿfar al-Khuldī composed the Ḥikāyāt al-Auliyāʾ, so highly esteemed by the scholars of Baghdad during the following century. Both of these important hagiographies have been lost but many fragments of them have survived in later works. Moreover, both were very in&uential in the large systematic studies of Ṣū%sm that appeared in the 4th/11th century.” This view is con%rmed in Arberry. Su(sm: An Account of the Mystics of Islam. London: Allen & Unwin (1950), p. 67. Al-Khuldī does not even merit a mention in the Encyclopedia of Islam. Works not otherwise cited in this paper relating to al-Khuldī and his works include: M. Lings, “Mystical Poetry,” The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott-Meisami. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (1990), p. 239; J. Renard. Historical Dictionary of Su(sm. Scarecrow Press: Lanham, MD (2005), p. 138. For references to Massignon's works, see Sezgin, GAS, I, 661. References to MSS for al-Khuldī's other two surviving works – Mihnat al-Shā(ʿī and Rawāyah fī al-taṣawwuf - are given in Sezgin, op. cit. There is also at least two records of his majālis in Baghdad: Majmūʿ ʿashrah ajzāʾ ḥadīthiyyah taḥqīq Nabīl Saʿd al-Dīn Jarrār. Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah: Beirut (N/D). Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Murtʿash al-Naysabūrī (d. 328/939). This phrasing in translation is provided by Kashf al-Maḥjūb, ed. Reynolds, p. 155. Abū Bakr Dalf ibn Jaʿfar ibn Yūnus al-Shiblī (d. 334/945).

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Travels, Education, Ṣūfī Tendencies Known to be a proli%c traveler, al-Khuldī performed the ḥajj 56 times, some twenty of them on 10 foot. He also related, through al-Ṭuyūrī11, being a0icted with a terrible case of mange (jarab ʿaẓīm kathīr) and cured it by traveling to Karbalāʾ and smearing himself (tamassaḥa) with the soil of the grave of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (d. 61/680).12 A more highly stylized and less historically plausible account from Ibn al-ʿArabī13 places him on Jabal Ṭūr – the mountain upon which Moses received the Commandments – in a conversation with a Christian monk, perhaps a literary indication of his ascetic leanings. Much of al-Khuldī's education took place in Baghdad, but through a long series of travels he extended his scholarly network. Of his listed teachers the vast majority were known as ḥadīth transmitters, and from al-Fuwāʾid we can situate a few of the details of his educational development. Amongst his %rst teachers in Baghdad were the eminent Hanbalī muḥaddiths ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad al-Dūrī (d. Ṣafr 271/July-August 884) and Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḥalwānī (#6, d. 276/889)14 , meaning that al-Khuldī began his studies in typical late-9th century ṣūfī fashion: perhaps at around ten years of age in 265/867 with a rigorous background in ḥadīth.15 After these overtures in Baghdad, he left and traveled extensively, seeking out muḥadīthūn along the way in Baṣrah, natives of which the isnads of al-Fawāʾid count in large number (#11, 15, 28)16; Makkah, home of Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Zayd al-Ṣāʾigh (d. Dhī al-Qaʿdah 291/Sept.-Oct. 904) who is cited twice in al-Fawāʾid (#7, 8); alKūfah from which al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥammad al-Dallāl (#3, d. 295/907-8) hailed (#3); and
10 al-Sayyid mentions in his Introduction that al-Khuldī was a ḥājj 60 times over, and this is taken from Ibn al-Jawzī in his Kitāb al-Muntaẓam (14/119) #2588. However al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī quotes al-Khuldī himself giving an account of his journeys to Makkah which explicitly references 56 trips to the mountain of ʿUrfah. See: Tarīkh Baghdād (7/226) #3715, below. 11 Al-Mubārak ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Tuyūrī. Al-Tuyūriyyāt. Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir (2001), p. 467. 12 It is largely because of this report that he has earned himself a reputation as a Shīʿa amongst many modern Muslims and several accounts in al-Fawāʾid signal approval of major Shīʿī %gures ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (#2), ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (#6, 46, 51), and Ḥassan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (#14, 46). It should be noted that al-Khuldī's student Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Dāraquṭnī (b. 306/918) was accused of being a Shīʿī due to having memorized the dīwān of al-Sayyid al-Ḥimyarī; see Robson, “al-Dāraquṭnī”, EI2. 13 Muḥiyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Arabī al-Ḥātimī al-Ṭāʾī al-Andalūsī. Muḥāḍarat al-Abrār wa Musāmarat al-Akhiyār fī al-Adabiyyāt wal Nawādir wal-Akhbār, taḥqīq Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Nimrī. Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah: Beirut (2007), pp. 325-6. 14 Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ibn al-Furāʾ Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaʿlā ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad. Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, taḥqīq ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿUthaymīn. Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭaniyyah: Makkah (1419/1999), 3 vols. 15 George Makdisi. The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West: Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press (1981). Religion, law, and learning in classical Islam. Brook%eld, VT: Variorum (1991). Law and education in medieval Islam : studies in memory of Professor George Makdisi, eds. Joseph E. Lowry, Devin J. Stewart and Shawkat M. Toorawa. Cambridge: Gibb Memorial Trust, (2004). 16 See al-Sayyid (passim.) for a full treatment of the transmitters from Baṣrah.

Egypt, where he was taught by Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Rushd al-Mahdī (#2). These and other teachers from the traditional scholastic centers of the 3rd/10th and early 4th/11th centuries were a demonstrably important source for al-Khuldī's religious growth, but the great majority (14/22) of his known teachers were fellow Baghdādīs, of whom the ṣūfīs had the greatest in&uence.17 Despite his extensive ḥadīth education, al-Khuldī made a name for himself as a ṣūfī; he is named by al-Dhahabī as “the shaykh of the Baghdad ṣūfīs in his day, and the most learned in ḥadīth amongst them.” He was exposed to Baghdadi ṣū%sm in his youth, and we know that his earliest attested ṣūfī teacher, Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Khirāz (277/890-1), died at approximately the same date as his earliest ḥadīth teacher, al-Dūrī. Indeed, it seems that one of his %rst experiences with a ṣūfī – if not an apocryphal account - came while he was studying with al-Dūrī. According to al-Dhahabi, al-Khuldī had related the following account:
I went to ʿAbbas al-Dūrī while I was studying ḥadīth. and I wrote down one of his sessions (majlis) then left. Upon doing that I happened upon a ṣūfī who asked, “What’s this?” I showed him. He said, “Woe unto you who claims this tasteless dogma (ʿalam) and accepts the knowledge (ʿilm) of paper.” He then ripped up the documents. His words found purchase in my heart and I didn’t return to ʿAbbās, but instead stopped by ʿUrfah [a mountain near Makkah] %fty-six times. [After those trips] I said, “He wasn’t anything except an ignorant ṣufī who tore up prophetic ḥadīths and espoused a baseless (majhūl) principle. How lacking in true knowledge he was.”

This nameless and crass ṣūfī notwithstanding, al-Khuldī involved himself with the preeminent ṣūfī personalities of his including: al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah al-Tamaymī (282/89), Abū al-Ḥusayn alNūrī (d. 295/907), and Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Junayd ibn Muḥammad al-Khazzāz al-Qawārīrī (297/909), and Abū Ḥusayn Ruwaym ibn Yazīd al-Baghdādī (303/915-6). Junayd, in particular was in&uential on alKhuldī, who appears in three of the isnads in al-Fawāʾid (#24-6). He invested himself deeply into the spiritual lineage of his ṣūfī forebears, and Ibn Nadīm records a report in al-Khuldī's own hand tracing his personal connection to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī through Junayd.18 It appears that he was not a particular innovator within the mystical tradition, but one revealing bon môt of self-apprehension – in many ways reminiscent of al-Muḥāsibī - comes down to us:
The good in this world and the hereafter lies in persevering instantly. This is to say, when an adversity happens upon you in a work of obedience, you persevere it it at once. When your lower self challenges you to give in to a passion and a work of disobedience, you abstain from these immediately.19

Content al-Fawāʾid wal-Zuhd wal-Raqāʾiq wal-Marāthī is a collection of 52 narrative reports and quotations of varying length which provide examples of the various ethnical and aesthetic qualities in circulation amongst Baghdad's ṣūfī circles during the early to middle 10th century. Among the narratives we %nd six prophetic ḥadīths and two verses of the Qurʾān. The sequence of the narratives is not de%nitive and no headings are given, but broad themes are explored throughout: images of qaḍāʾ, qadr, and ultimate judgement (#1-3, 15-7, 21, 32, 44-5 ) performative traditions (#6, 10-11, 25 ), upright conduct and gracious reception (#9, 34-7, 39-42) development of a loving relationship with God (18-9, 22), and assessment of earthly value - dunyā - (#28, 29, 33). Poetry is adduced throughout the text, especially at the end (#12-3 , 33, 46-50); account #12 – and probably #31, as well - features a dream, despite Leah Kinberg's supposition that the text does not.20 One might conclude that the text follows, in very rough fashion, the layout presented in the title: fawāʾid (“bene%ts”), zuhd (“asceticism” or “rigorous piety”), raqāʾiq (“things which stir the heart”), and marāthī (“lamentations”), although one or more poems in this category - #33, especially - might fall just as easily into the category of zuhdiyyāt.21 Under scrutiny, however, this grouping is mostly super%cial and more study into the genre of early biographical works will help us understand the literary and religious concerns which works such as this dealt. Primarily, the reader may view the text as setting forth remarkable and edifying - if not plausibly normative – traditions of spiritual exemplae. The text is amply supplied with both “ascetic” or “world negating” tendencies, and “mystic” examples, as de%ned by Weberian ideal types: one will just as easily %nd the stark language of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (#33, d. 181/797), an account also related by stern traditionist Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (#12, d. 281/894), or approval of piteously weeping into the night (#25) as one will the speech of famed mystic al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (#23, d. 110/728), Mālik ibn Mighwal's untroubled relationship with the Divine (#44), or the admonition to shun ruinous blame (#26). It is notable that al-Khuldī is so inclined toward such “negative” traditions. As Melchert has argued in numerous pieces, the “ascetic” consciousness of ṣūfīs appears to completely give way in the 9th century and crest swiftly toward a mystical peak with the %gure of Junayd.22 However, alFawāʾid appears to tout and celebrate typically “ascetic” practices along with “mystic” traditions more than 50 years after Melchert suggests that the former had fallen precipitously out of favor in ṣūfī circles. The present work is unlike al-Khuldī's other, more famous biographical works, which explicitly tied their stories to personalities which contemporary early 10th century ṣūfī viewed as ideals of
20 Kinberg, Morality in the Guise of Dreams: A Critical Edition of Ibn Abī al-Dunyā's Kitāb al-Manām. Brill: Leiden (1994), p. 41 n. 3. This is especially strange, given that Kinberg's work contains the exact same account (#234). 21 For speci%c studies the genre of zuhdiyyāt, see: Andras Hamori. “Ch. 15: Ascetic Poetry (Zuhdiyyāt),” in Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Eds. Roger Allen and D.S. Richards. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (2006); René Balchére. Histoire de la Litterature Arabe. Paris: Adrien-Maissonneuve (1956-8), 3 vols., p. 579. 22 See “Transition from Asceticism to Mysticism,” op. cit, and “Khargūshī, Tahdhīb al-Asrār,” Bulletein of the SOAS, Vol. 73 (2010), pp. 29-44.

pious, holy, and righteous Muslims – Ḥikāyāt al-Awliyāʾ and Ḥikāyāt al-Mashāyikh. On its surface, alFawāʾid makes no claim to a ṣūfī heritage in the title, although we can safely assume the that the words of the title refer to his personal spiritual values, and perhaps, even more mainstream contemporary ṣūfī principles. If we can reasonably expect that the contents of al-Fawāʾid are a re&ection of an important part of al-Khuldī's religiosity and identi%cation as a ṣūfī, there may be room to allow a longer period – or di+erent type - of in&uential “ascetic” ideas in the post-Junayd ṣūfī world. Translated Text: al-Fawāʾid wal-Zuhd wal-Raqāʾiq wal-Marathī Translation Notes: All transliterations follow IJMES conventions, with some modi%cations. The tāh marbūtah is written with a %nal h. The indication of paternity is written Abū throughout, regardless of the form in Arabic. Elision of long vowel in Abū into the de%nite article is signi%ed with ʾ. Personal nisbahs which refer to trades (e.g. al-Qazzāz, al-Bayʿ, etc.) have been left untranslated. All direct references to Allāh have been left untranslated; any pronoun or proper noun which refers to God has been capitalized and rendered in the masculine. Other Arabic words whose explicit translation within the account would encumber their direct style have also been left untranslated, with accompanying explanatory footnotes. Brackets ([…]) are used to %ll in lacunae or to direct the reader to a clear interpretation of the narrative style. The narrative voice lends itself to repetitive use of the verb “to say” (qāla), and is frequently rendered as “ask”, “reply”, or “respond” in translation as %ts the context. Verse has been translated to express an exactitude of language and not necessarily to exhibit the meter or, even less frequently, the rhyme that is characteristic of the original Arabic. __________________________________ In the name of Allāh the Bene%cent the Merciful. O Lord, Most Generous: support us and render us prosperous. 1) We were informed by Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥā(ẓ Jamāl al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn al-Zakī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mazzī by way of an ijāzah and correspondence, who was informed by his father al-Ḥā(ẓ al-Mazzī, who was informed by al-Nājīb Abū al-Muhraf al-Miqdād ibn Abī l-Qāsim ibn al-Miqdād al-Qaysī listening to one who was learned in it, who was informed by Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad al-Bandabījī, who was informed by al-Shaykh Abū Naṣr al-Maʿmūr ibn Muḥammad al-Husayn al-Bayʿ, who was informed by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Husayn ibn Sakīnah al-Anmāṭī, who was informed by Abū ʾl-Qāsim Bakr ibn Shādhān ibn Bukayr al-Muqriʾ through Abū ʿAbd Allāh's reading it aloud to him, who was informed by Abū Muḥammad Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Nusayr al-Khawwāṣ al-Khuldī, who cites al-Hārith ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Usāmah al-Tamaymī, who cites Abū Nuʿaym, who cites Sufyān, on the authority of Abī Ḥāzim, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the ultimate authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr who said:

The Prophet of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – said: “A servant does not truly believe until he believes in qadr23 – both its evil and its good.” 2) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Hajjāj ibn Rushd al-Mahdī, who cites Yūsuf ibn ʿAlī, who cites ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Muḥāribī on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Shaybānī, on the authority of alʿAbbās ibn Darʿ , on the authority of Sharīḥ ibn Hānī, on the authority of ʿĀʾishah who said: “Were I to perform laylat al-qadr24, I would not ask my Lord – to Him all might and majesty – for anything in its duration except all-encompassing forgiveness until I arrived at the morning.” 3) We cite al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥammād in al-Kūfah, who cites Aḥmad ibn Ṣabīḥ, who cites al-Rabīʿ ibn Sahl al-Fazārī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṭāʾī, on the ultimate authority of ʿAlī ibn Rabīʿah al-Rākibī who said: I heard ʿAlī – May Allāh be pleased with him – on this pulpit25 of yours when he said: “The Umī26 Prophet – peace and blessings be upon him – imposed the condition that he does not love you unless you be a believer, and does not hate you unless you be a hypocrite.”
23 Qadar is usually understood to be the earthly expression of God's will, indicating a measure of human responsibility for bringing good or evil particulars into the world. It became a subject of intense theological debate between Traditionist and Muʿtazila groups concerning the divide between man's agency and God's omnipotence, a debate which ran coeval with al-Khuldī's lifetime. See: L. Gardet, “al-Ḳaḍāʾ wa ’l-Ḳadar," EI2 . 24 Partially distinct from the meaning of qadar given above, this refers to the beginning of Muḥammad's prophetic mission: the night when he %rst received revelation. There is great disagreement in ḥadīth literature about when this night actually occurs; see Sunan Ibn Dāwūd 1915, 1918; Sunnan Ibn Mājah 1165, 1166, 1167, 1169; Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 762, 1381, 1382, 1386. The observance of this tradition has inspired performative and religious customs which endow it with great spiritual import. Chie&y, it is viewed as the instance when every person's qadar for the coming year is determined, or as a night of atonement wherein the believer declares her hope for a spiritual renewal and forgiveness both personal and catholic. The intent here focuses especially on the latter. In the Qurʾān, it is said to last until dawn breaks, an aspect highlighted by ʿĀʾishah. See: Sūrat al-Qadar; A. Neuwirth, “Ramaḍān,” EI2; and Marcotte, “Night of Power,” Encylopaedia of the Qurʾān. 25 ʿAlī, following in the tradition of the previous Rāshidūn, was known to have appeared on the minbars of al-Kūfah and al-Baṣrah several times in defense of his own claims to the caliphate, as well as those of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. See, e.g., Tarīkh Dimashq (30/351, 359) and al-Āḥād wal Mathānī (1/148, 151). 26 The term ummī is one of the most problematic for our understanding of Muḥammad's prophetic mission, both in relation to how he himself perceived it and how others interpreted it. Today, consensus in the Muslim community has crystallized around an understanding which translates as “unlettered”, signifying that Muḥammad could not have taken his revelatory cues from previous scriptures and, thus, verifying the authenticity of his prophetic mission. However, some medieval and modern scholars have pointed to evidence which supports alternative meanings for ummī including: 'Arabian' and 'Meccan' – owing to the word's semantic relation to ummah (a group or nation) - or 'layman'. For an overview of these arguments, see: Sebastien Günther. “Muḥammad the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic Creed in the Qurʾān and Qurʾānic Exegesis,” Journal of Qurʾānic Studies Vol. 4, No. 1 (2002), pp. 1-26. A study the writerly culture around Muḥammad as preserved in later textual redactions can be found in: Sarah Zubair Mirza. Oral Tradition and Scribal Conventions in the Documents Attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan (2010), esp. 175-85.

4) We cite ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Quṭṭān al-Fārisī in al-Fārisiyah, who cites ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Ṣāliḥ, who cites Sahl Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Muhannī, on the authority of someone he knew, on the authority of Abī Hāshim, on the ultimate authority of Zādhān who said: I was a clear-voiced youth and skilled in playing the lyre. One day, my friends and I were in a small garden with a jar containing wine when a man entered our midst, striking the vessel with his foot and then throwing it. He then grabbed the lyre and broke it, whereupon he said: “O young man! If what I hear of the quality of your voice were instead used for the Qurʾān, then you would become your true self.” He departed, and I said to my friends, “Who is this?” They responded, “You mean you do not know him?” I said, “No”, to which they replied, “This is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, a companion of the Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him.” At that moment, Allāh cast repentance27 into my heart, and I followed ʿAbd Allāh, calling out to him before he entered his dwelling. He asked, “Who are you?”, and I replied, “I am the owner of the lyre.” He said, “Welcome to whoever loves Allāh and His Apostle” and ordered me to sit and o+ered me a date. He remarked, “Eat, for if there were something to eat other then this in our possession, we would have pro+ered it to you, instead.” 5) We cite Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Sabīḥ in Kufa, who found in his grandfather's book that which cites Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿUthmān al-Azadī, who cites al-Ḥasan on the authority of Abū Hurayrah who said: The Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – said, “There is nothing in Allāh's sight more preferable than knowledge28 of true religion.” 6) We cite Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḥalwānī, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabāḥ, who cites Farj ibn Faḍālah, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah al-Dimashqī, on the ultimate authority of Ibn ʿAbbās : Abū Hurayrah said, “A man came to Ibn ʿAbbās to inquire about fasting. Ibn ʿAbbās said, 'You have
27 For a discussion of ṣūfī conceptions of tawbah prior to and contemporary with al-Khuldī see: Atif Khalil. Early Su( Approaches to Tawba: From the Qur’ān to Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī. Dissertation: University of Toronto (2009), especially his section on al-Wāsiṭī pp. 144-50. 28 The Arabic here reads (qh, most simply translated as given. As a theological phenomenon, it refers to the development of interpretive jurisprudence which blossomed - in Sunnī circles - into the four schools of law beginning with Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 148/768) and Mālik ibn Anas (d. 178/795) and still vibrant during al-Khuldī's life in the person of al-Shā%ʿī (d. 324/936); Abū Hurayrah (d. 61/681) necessarily could not possibly have been referencing these later occurrences. The later (qh schools developed competing credal stances for deriving authoritative judgements, ranging from personal opinion, to consensus of local tradition, to textual authority; in this last the Ḥanbalīs – i.e. followers of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal - and Shā%ʿīs constructed their pronouncements. Considering al-Khuldī's instruction in the textual tradition at the hands of several notable Ḥanbalīs and his mystic leanings, it is plausible that he interpreted this use of (qh to refer to knowledge of the textual tradition of the Prophet – the Qurʾān and the received sunnah (“example”); see Melchert, “Pietry of Ḥadīth Folk,” IJMES Vol. 34, No. 3 (2002). Given al-Shā%ʿī's low opinion of ṣūfīs – he is made to exclaim that, “Su%sm was established upon sloth (al-kasal)” in Ibn al-Jawazī's Talbīs Iblīs – we might assume al-Khuldī kept his credal distance.

come to ask about my personal habits; however, I will inform you of the tradition known to me through exhaustive searching: 'If you seek the fasting of David – peace be upon him, the regent of the Beni%cient to Him all might and majesty – then know that he was a servant of the highest order and the bravest of people, and he never recited [the Pslams?] if he he stood to gain from it. He used to recite the entirety of it in seventy styles, including a rendition which moved the careworn.29 When wanting to make himself weep there remained no beast on the land nor in the sea except that which hearkened intently to his voice, listening and crying. He also performed a prostration at the end of the night, crying piteously until the morning came. And the Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – used to say, “The best fast is that of my brother David – peace be upon him – in that he fasted one day and broke it the next.” 'And if you seek the fast of his son Sulaymān – peace be upon him – then know that he used to fast three days at the beginning of each month, and from the middle of the month three days, [and from the end three days], seeking to fast at the beginning, middle and end of the month. 'And if you seek the fast of the son of the Blessed Virgin – peace be upon him – then know that he used to fast year-round, not breaking it for anything. He used only to eat barley and wear hairshirts.30 He had no son who shed blood and no daughter who tilled the earth. A skillful spearman, he did not miss a prey he intended. Wheresoever the sun set, he set his feet in line and continued to pray until he saw it had risen. He used to pass his time occupied with Isrāʾīl, administering to he who had need. He never undertook a task except after having performed two rakʿs.31 Such was his pursuit until he was raised.32 'And if you seek the fast of his mother, then know that she fasted two days, breaking it thereafter.” 'And if you seek the fast of the best of humanity [Muḥammad] – peace be upon him – then know
29 Al-Sayyid gives the de%nition of the Arabic maḥmūm as someone struck by a fever (al-ḥamā). 30 This is a play on words, taking advantage of the consonantal similarity between the Arabic words shaʿīr (barley) and shaʿr (hair). 31 A rakʿah (“genu&ection”) is an integral part of Islamic prayer. At each of the determined %ve daily prayers, the worshipper should perform %ve rakʿahs, followed by full prostration. ʿĪsā's actions described in this tradition could should be considered as ziyādah, or supererogatory, as it emphasizes that all actions to him were connected with prayerfulness. 32 This particular tradition relating Jesus' fasting habits is also found in Tanbīh al-Ghā(līn by Abū ʾl-Layth al-Samarqāndī (d. 387/997); see: The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature, ed. and trans. by Tarif Khalidi. Cambridge: Harvard University Press (2001), #146. Its appearance in this manuscript likely makes it the earliest known recording of this tradition by several decades.

that he used to fast three days of the month, saying they were the fast of the dahr.”33 7) We cite Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Zayd al-Ṣāʾigh in Makkah, who cites al-ʿUqaybī, who cites Salām ibn Sulaymān on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Wāsiʿ, on the ultimate authority of al-Mahdī who said: Abū Hurayrah said to me: “O Mahdī! Do not be a ḥarīs, nor an ʿarīf, nor a shurṭī.34 8) We cite Abū Saʿīd al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muḥammad al-Jundī in Mekkah, who cites Abū Ḥummah, who cites ʿAbd al-Razzāq, who was informed by Muʿammar on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, on the ultimate authority of his father who said: ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allāh be pleased with him – said to a man: “What have you to say about so-and-so?” The man said, “There is no fault in him, Commander of the Faithful.” ʿUmar asked, “Have you ever accompanied him in travel?” He replied, “No, Commander of the Faithful.” ʿUmar asked, “Has any enmity ever transpired between you two?” He replied, “No, Commander of the Faithful.” ʿUmar asked, “Then, have you ever intrusted him with a dirhām or a dīnār?” He replied, “No, Commander of the Faithful.” ʿUmar said, “You have no knowledge of him; you have merely seen a man poke his head into a house of prayer and raise it.” 9) We cite Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿUqaybī, who cites Ṭāhir ibn Abī Aḥmad, who cites ʿAbd alRaḥmān ibn Mahdī, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, on the ultimate authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakm who said: Wahb ibn Munabbih said: “A man met another superior to him in knowledge and asked, “How much should I eat?” The latter responded, “That which is above hunger and below satiation.” The former then asked, “How much should I laugh?” and the latter responded, “Until your face breaks forth in cheer, but not so that your voice can be heard.” The former asked, “How much should I cry?” and the latter responded, “Do not tend towards crying for fear of Allāh.” The former asked, “How many of my actions should I hide?” and the latter replied, “So that the people do not see you working for your own bene%t.” The former asked, “And how many of my actions should I reveal?” and the latter replied, “So that you satisfy the inquiry of the ḥarīṣ35 and what people say vouches for you.”
33 The word dahr is used to describe both ʿĪsā's fast (“year-round”) as well as Muḥammad's. In pre-Islamic times, the dahr was seen as a Fortuna-like force: inescapable and inexorable. Throughout the Islamic period, it continued to be an evocative theme, especially in poetry, due to its great semantic variety. Technically it can refer to any period of time, although it is assumed to be long by many of the classical philologists. See: “Dahr,” W. Montgomery Watt, EI2. 34 Abū Hurayrah is referring to positions within the imperial security apparatus, which operated directly under the aegis of the caliph. Al-Sayyid gives de%nitions as follows: ḥarīs – “one who serves the sulṭān, charged with his preservation and protection”; ʿarīf - “the chef d'a+aires below the [group's] leader, who is in charge of the tribe or group's matters. Through him, the leader comes to know the group's conditions.”. al-Sayyid does not de%ne shurṭī, but this was a position attached to the imperial security force. The implicit criticism here is that those who served in such capacities served the interest of ẓalm – repression against believers in contradiction with the spirit of brotherhood. 35 See n. 34, above.

10) We cite Abū Shuʿayb ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī, who cites Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nābultī, who cites Salamah ibn Wardān, who heard Anas ibn Mālik say: Muʿādh ibn Jabal came to me from the presence of the Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him. I said, “What has the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him – said?” He replied, “He said that whoever testi%es that there is no God but Allāh sincerely has entered Paradise.” I said, “You heard this, personally?” He said, “Yes, go to him and ask.” Thereafter, I approached the Apostle – peace and blessings be upon him – and questioned him and I said, “O Apostle of Allāh! Muʿādh ibn Jabal told me that you said whoever testi%es that there is no God but Allāh, sincere in its meaning, has entered Paradise.” He said, “Muʿādh has spoken truly.”36 11) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Masrūq al-Ṭūsī, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites Abū Isḥāq al-Baṣrī, who cites Mahdī ibn Maymūn who said: Wāṣil Mawlā ʿUyaynah, was a neighbor of mine and lived by himself in a room. I used to listen to his recitation at night and he seldom slept at this time, except infrequently. He said, “Then ʿUyaynah went away to Mekkah, but I continued to hear the recitation from his room in a voice that was alike to his; it was as if I could not dispute anything of the veracity of it all, and all the while the door was closed.” He said, “No sooner had he come from his travels than I mentioned that to him, and he replied, 'What do you %nd to dispute in that? Those are the inhabitants of the next world,37 who pray with our prayer and who listen to our recitations.'” I said, “So, do you see them?” He replied, “No, but I sense them and I hear their assurance at the time of my invocation38 and once when sleep overcame me, they woke me.” 12) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites Yaḥyā ibn Rāshid Abū Bakr, who cites Muḍar al-Qāriʾ who saidʾ: There was a man who seldom slept during the night, but one night the weakness of his eyes overcame him and he fell asleep instead of praying. There, in the state which the sleeper sees, he saw a woman who had come to stand over him, as if she were the luminous moon. He said, “With her was a sack, in it a book, and she said, 'Can you read, O shaykh?'” He replied, “Yes,” and she
36 In the Arabic text, this phrase is written twice. Often with Prophetic aḥādīth Muḥammad is shown to clarify the intention of his statement by repeating it. See: Dr. Amīnah Badr al-Dīn. “Al-Tikrār fī al-Ḥadīth al-Nabawī al-Sharīf,” Majallat Jāmaʿat Dimashq 26, al-ʿadd al-awwal wal-thānī (2010), pp. 73-113. 37 The Arabic here reads dār, a reference to dār al-ākhirah, in distinction to the dār al-dunyā which refers to the domain of the human condition. See: Tritton, “Ākhira,” EI2. Al-Sayyid, in his edition, refers to these inhabitants as “angels” (malāʾikah). 38 The Arabic word used here – duʿāʾ – should be considered distinct from ritual or liturgical prayer – ṣalāt – from which the earlier translation of “prayer” is derived. Recourse to duʿāʾ was a particularly common practice amongst Ḥanbalīs – a signi%cant in&uence on a-Khuldī's early scholastic career - and Shīʿah – with whom al-Khuldī is identi%ed by many modern Muslims. The question of duʿāʾ was also raised by prominent Ashʿarī theologians, who recognized the problematic reconciliation of qadar and qaḍāʾ with a request to which God would respond. See: I. Gardet, “Duʿāʾ”, EI2.

said, 'Then read me this book.'” He said, “I took the book from her hand, which I found written in it: Did comfort of a moment's sleep divert your from life's virtue, and the good deeds in the chambers of your heart and soul? To live everlastingly, no death therein, Finding su4ciency in the encampment with The Beauti%er. Awake from your slumber if it is better To keep vigil at night than to sleep. He said: “Then, by Allāh, I had scarcely mentioned the passage when sleep departed from me.” 13) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak: Ibn al-Mubārak recalled the pious servants, and said: On what do they rest but that which surrounds them? And what are their pillows but a sheet and some clothes?39 And what occupies their nights except impassioned prayer? And what is sleep to them save a dreadful dissembler? Their complexion made yellow, as if on their faces were Sa+ron - a sickly complexion, saturated with euxanthone. Tattered swords, neglected by their zeal and by night-journey Toward Allāh in the blackness, while the people slumber. They weep at all times, as though their clamor At the time people sleep is a wailing, so burdened. I have borne witness to their session of remembrance And their eyes tear up from the awesomeness of Allāh. 14) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Abū Khālid al-Umawī, who cites Salamah al-ʿĀbid on the authority of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar who said: Indeed, Ḥassan used to say, “God has servants like he who sees the elect in Paradise, abiding; likewise, he who sees the Damned in the %re, a0icted. Their hearts fear Allāh su4ciently, from evils they are protected, their needs are compensated, and their souls chaste from worldly concern. They have endured for some time, and their retribution now is a long reprieve. During the night, they align their feet to pray, shedding tears on their cheeks, hastening to their Lord,
39 The Arabic here reads adhraʿ, which has a multiplicity of meanings including “swift arriving death”. The context, however, calls for this more limited reading.

saying, “Our Lord, Our Lord.” During the day, the forbearing, the learned, the pious, those devout to the will of Allāh - it is as though they are the canker to which the observer looks, and he considers them to be sick, a nation in which no one is acceptable. Surely they have been disordered in the mind and a grievous matter has infected them.” 15) We cite Ahmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Masrūq, who cites Yūsuf ibn Mūsā al-Marwazī, who cites Ibn Khabīq, who cites Abū l-Khayr al-Baṣrī who said: Allāh - to Him all might and majesty - granted inspiration to David, peace be upon him: “You presume that you love me and you claim my love40 for you, but you cast aspersions morning and night. There is in this a lesson for you. Indeed, I have ceiled seven earths – even if you foisted but an atom's worth into them for any space of time, I would not forget it. As for Me, if not for My preserving you from the characteristics of the hypocrite, then surely I would have burned you in the %res of Hell.” 16) We cite Aḥmad, who cites Yūsuf, who cites Khabīq who said that he heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḍarīs say: A bedouin said in his prayer: “I ask Allāh: I have extended my hand to You desiringly, and that with which You have sustained me through your forgiveness has become even stronger. Your abundance is proven evident to me in my time of heedlessness, so how could I be deprived of hope from you at the moment of death? I do not negate your expectation of me with the monumentality of my sins; if I have done that, then surely there is no way to arrive in your presence except through you. 17) We cite Aḥmad, who cites al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, who cites Ismāʿīl ibn ʿĪsā, who cites Isḥāq, who cites Jubayr on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the ultimate authority of Abū ʿAbbās who said: When Allāh – to Him all might and majesty – wanted to take hold of the soul of his khalīl41
40 The translation of these two instances of love are taken from the Arabic roots ḥ-b-b and ʿ-sh-q, both of which describe “love” in the English sense; the second, however, denotes an intimate or passionate love. ʿIshq became a highly charged term in ṣūfī circles due its being employed to describe the relationship between creation – namely humans – and God. To some rationalist circles, chie&y the Muʿtazilah, this tone re&ected a dangerous tendency toward assigning anthropomorphic qualities to God. It should be noted that al-Khuldī had more than a passing interest in ʿishq, as one of his works appears in al-Sarrāj, Lumʿ, with the name Maṣāriʿ al-Ushshāq (“Lovers' Demise”), op cit. For a summary of the development of the use of maḥabbah and ʿishq to describe ṣūfī dictates on their loving relationship to God: see 'ʿishq,” Arkoun, M, EI2, and Joseph E. B. Lumbard. “From ḥubb to ʿishq: The Development of Love in Early Su%sm,” Journal of Islamic Studies Vol. 18, No. 3 (2009), pp. 345-85. From this use on, references to “passion”, “desire” or ʿishq in the translation will refer the reader to a well-developed awareness of intimate, personal connection with the object, be it human or divine. Use of the word “love” without the quali%cation of “passion” will refer henceforth to the word ḥubb or its derivation maḥabbah. 41 Khalīl here is the usual honori%c given to Ibrāhim, signifying the intimate relationship he enjoyed with God. Few prophets enjoy distinction from others by way of a special appellation; others include Jesus - Kalām Allāh (“word of God”) – and Muḥammad – khātim al-anbiyāʾ (“the seal of the prophets”).

Ibrāhīm He sent down to him the Angel of Death. Ibrāhīm said to him, “Can it be that I have seen a khalīl come to take hold of the soul of his fellow khalīl?” So, the Angel of Death ascended to his Lord – to Him all might and majesty – then returned to him and said, “O Ibrāhīm! And can it be that I have seen a khalīl abhor the meeting of his fellow khalīl?” Ibrāhīm responded, “Then take my soul at the Hour of Judgement.” 18) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥamad al-Ṭūsī, who cites Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī, who cites Mūsā ibn Ayūb on the authority of Shuʿayb ibn Ḥarb who said: I entered upon Mālik ibn Mighwal while he was in a dwelling in al-Kūfah and I said to him, “Don't you feel alienated here?” He responded, “I never considered that one could grow alienated while with Allāh – to Him all might and majesty. If the servant loves his Lord then he feels no desolation; rather, he grows familiar with Him and speaks to Him.” 19) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Aḥmad ibn Abī Ḥawārī who said: I said to a hermit in his hermitage, “O Hermit! What is the most powerful thing your ilk %nds in your books?” He responded, “We %nd nothing more powerful in our books than that you exercise all of your love and all of your strength in loving the Creator.” 20) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥawārī, who cites Zakariyā ibn Yaḥyā who said: It was said to Abū ʿUbaydah al-Nājī, “What is your name?” He responded, “The Defender of Days.” The former again asked, “What is your name, O ʿAbd Allāh?” The latter said, “I have informed you that the beloved is consumed with the anxiety of this world, and he is the 'Defender of Days'.” 21) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī, who cites Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥawārī, who heard Abū Sulaymān say: He had placed them in the chambers of Paradise before they obeyed Him, and He had entered them into the hell%re before they rebelled against Him. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allāh have mercy on him – had been wont to carry food to the idols42 and – Allāh love him – that did not harm him for even the batting of an eye. 22) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Ahmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī, who cites ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dhakwān on the authority of ʿUmar ibn Abī Salamah, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Ḥassān that Muslim ibn Yassār said: Those who experience harsh trials would not face such hardship in the retreat of intimate discourse with Allāh – to Him all might and majesty – and familiarity with His love. 23) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad for his report that Muḥammad ibn Ḥamīd cites Zā(r ibn Sulaymān, who
42 These refer to the idols in the Kaʿbah during the pre-Islamic period; Muḥammad's conquest of Mekkah in 630 ended with their removal. Likewise, the worship of idols is connected with disobedience to God's will throughout the Qurʾān. See: al-Shuʿarāʾ 71; al-Anbiyāʾ 57; Ibrāhīm 35; al-Anʿām 34; al-Aʿrāf 138.

cites ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rajāʾ ibn Wāqid, on the authority of ʿAbbās ibn Manṣūr who said: al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was questioned about tawakkul and said: “It is contentment with Allāh - to Him all might and majesty.” 24) I [al-Khuldī] heard Abā l-Qāsim al-Junayd [say]: Allāh did not intend to delay that which creation was promised; rather, they attempt to substitute that which they order [for that which they were promised]. And for such reason, He has delayed that which they were promised. 25) We cite al-Junayd ibn Muḥammad, who heard Abū Jaʿfar al-Baqqāl report: There was between me and Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā - a man of upright religion and favor - a strong friendship. He [Abū Jaʿfar al-Baqqāl] said to me [Junayd], “I sought out Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā in his house one day and asked permission to enter, but he did not permit that to me. I then repeated to a bondwoman what Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā had said and she said to me, 'I am only aware that he entered a house at the beginning of the day and closed the door behind him, crying continuously, unceasingly.' I wished to seize the opportunity her words provided and said to her, 'Return and ask permission for me to to enter, and tell him that I am Abū Jaʿfar al-Baqqāl.' I then entered and saw him crying with such great force such that he could scarcely contain himself. I said to him, 'Tell me, what is the matter?' He wished for me to depart, but I refused to leave him. Then he said, 'Last night the time for performing wird43 elapsed without my having done it, and I cannot consider that except as something I have caused; therefore, I have been punished with the prevention of my wird,' whereupon he commenced crying. I took pity on him and wished to ease the situation for him, so I said to him, 'How wondrous your situation and mine are! I had hoped to receive something from you.' He said to me, 'And what is that?' I replied, 'That you would not be content with Allāh in a moment of your sleep until you you were seated, crying in my arms.' He said, 'Come o+ your pretension, O Abū Jaʿfar! I cannot consider the passing of my wird except as something I have caused.' Then weeping returned to him and his head did not return to my words. When I saw that this was the case, I got up to go and left him crying.” 26) Abū ʾl-Qāsim said: This is the conduct of he who has exalted himself: Allāh – to Him all might and majesty – desired soundness in his deeds so that he would not protest being stripped of a state from which He has removed him for his own bene%t, for he is not content except with that state's in&uence. Truly, if such a man lost any aspect of that state, then he would count that against himself, falling into blame and self-censure, not having pursued the inner worth of that ruined him.
43 Wird is a supererogatory personal devotion observed by the pious at speci%c times, usually once during the day and again at night. With the later development of ṣūfī brotherhoods (sing. ṭarīqah, pl. ṭuruq), wird became highly ritualized and even denoted credal stances speci%c to the individual ṭarīqah. See: “Wird,” F.M. Denny, EI2.

27) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites Mālik ibn Ḍaygham, who cites Abū al-Ḥusayn, a shaykh of the people of correct religion and favor, on the authority of one of his retinue who said: al-Iskandar44 passed by a city which long-passed kings had inhabited. He said to one of those who was with him, “Does anyone remain from the wives of those kings?” The latter replied, “Yes, there is a young man who seeks shelter amongst the cemeteries and graveyards and who does not associate with anyone.” Al-Iskandar sent for him and he came, whereupon he asked him, “Are you a son of those kings who ruled this village?” He replied, “This is true.” al-Iskandar asked further, “Then, why do you seek shelter amongst the cemeteries and graveyards?” He replied, “I want to sort out the bones of the kings from those of their servants so as to know that, but I have become weary and defeated and am not capable of it.” al-Iskandar said, “Do you have any surviving relations? Perhaps I can reach out to them that you might receive the honor of your forefathers.” He replied, “There is that which Allāh has preserved45 for me, if you are capable of %nding it.” alIskander queried, “And what is that?” He responded, “I want a young man without senescence; a state of happiness without misfortune; and a life without death.” al-Iskandar said, “And who is capable of bringing you that?” He replied, “He who possesses it is capable of it.” al-Iskandar said, “Truthfully, I do not possess it.” The young man responded, “I have my sights set on he who does.” al-Iskandar said, “It is wisdom, by Allāh.” He then turned to his companions and said, “Remember this.” 28) We cite Aḥmad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar, who cites Wahb ibn al-Milhab al-Baṣrī who said: A pious servant met another pious servant - or perhaps a hermit met another hermit – and said, “Advise me.” The latter said, “Flee from people that you may be be reborn.” Wahb said, “And they thought that this seemed an exemplary reclusion.” 29) We cite Aḥmad, who cites Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Azraq who said: One of the pious servants said, “The sign of zuhd46 in this world is that one pays no heed to its
44 This %gure is usually associated with the historical %gure of Alexander the Great; he is also referred to as Dhū ʾlQarnayn in the Qurʾān (al-Kahf 86, 94). For images of Alexander in Arabic literature, see: C.E. Bosworth, 'Alexander the Great' and G. Canova, 'Alexander romance' in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. by Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), vol. 1, pp. 68-9; W.Montgomery Watt, 'Iskandar' in EI2; and Z. David Zuwiyya. Islamic Legends Concerning Alexander the Great: Taken From Two Manuscripts in Madrid. SUNY Press: New York (2001). The account is also typical of what has come to be termed “Greek wisdom literature” in Islamic studies. The standard in this %eld remains: Dimitri Gutas. Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation. A Study of the Graeco-Arabic Gnomologia. (American Oriental Series, 60). New Haven: American Oriental Society (1975). 45 Both al-Iskandar and the young man use the word baqiyah to express the respective concerns of familial ties and preserved characteristics. 46 Zuhd – commonly translated as “asceticism” in western scholarly literature - was a fundamental tenet of early Islamic

food.” 30) We cite Aḥmad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites al-Ṣalt ibn Ḥakīm, who cites Abū Zayd alBaḥraynī who said: I entered upon a pious servant in Baḥrayn, on whose face was written “ʿAlī”. He said, “I have commanded you, my Beloved! The yearning for a look at Your noble face has melted my heart.”47 By Allāh he made me weep, and no sooner had a few days passed after that than he died, may Allāh - may He be exalted - have mercy upon him. 31) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn said: A woman from my family saw as though she had entered Paradise and it had been festively bedecked. She asked, “For whom has heaven been adorned?” The inhabitants of Paradise replied, “The most exalted of the Agents of the Bene%cent died yesterday.” Just then, he came out and in his hand was a jorum made of ruby. When the woman saw him, he became glad and said, “Show no deference, for this is the Paradise reserved for the meritorious, and only those who are most loved from amongst the pious servants are present.” The woman said, “O Father, by what means have you received this station from Allāh?” He replied, “By love for Him and constant deference to His inclination, to Him all might and majesty .”48 32) We cite Aḥmad, who cites Muḥammad, who cites ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh who said: It was said to one of the pious servants, “What is the sign of repentance?” He replied, “Dread of committing sin.”
praxis and is assumed by modern scholars to have been a important fear-driven phase of pre-ṣūfī spirituality which led to the development of a more fully realized mystical consciousness. This viewpoint's strongest proponent is Christoper Melchert; see: “Zuhd” EI3, and “The Transition from Asceticism to Mysticism at the Middle of the 9th Century CE,” Studia Islamica 83 (1996), pp. 51-70. The basis of his assumptions is underpinned by the use of Weberian ascetic-mystic ideal types, long out of favor with scholars of other ascetic traditions, and has been criticized in: Ch. 4 of Neue kritische Gänge: Zu Stand und Aufgaben der Su(kforschung/New Critical Essays: On the Present State and Future Tasks of the Study of Su(sm. Utrecht: M. Th. Houtsma Stichtung (2005); and Muʾnim Surry. “Pious Muslims in the Making: A Closer Look at Narratives of Ascetic Conversion,” Arabica 57 (2010), 437-454. A holistic look at examples of zuhd in 2nd/8th-4th/10th century Arabic pietistic literature and its social function was undertaken by Leah Kinberg in “What is Meant by zuhd?” Studia Islamica, No. 61 (1985), pp. 27-44. We note that this work should be read very carefully, as Kinberg's approach con&ates historical and literary uses of zuhd to imbue the term with a complete consistency of verbal usage and societal function over the course of these two centuries. At present, research into Islamic asceticism still lacks an approach which combines a viable methodological template, period-speci%c historical focus, and a textual repertoire which utilizes both ṣūfī and non-ṣūfī sources. 47 After this quote, the text returns us to the voice of the narrator, al-Khuldī. This phrasing has been amended to maintain the constancy of the al-Baḥraynī's voice. 48 Entering into heaven is a common topos of Islamic ascetic literature with very early roots. For an example of a Prophetic ḥadīth with similar overtones - including imagery of the splendor of heaven, a4rmation of virtue, and describing the means of attaining salvation – see: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Kitāb al-Zuhd, p. 117.

33) We cite Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ahwāzī, who cites Abū Muḥammad al-Tamīmī, who cites Aḥmad ibn Mūsā al-Naysābūrī, who cites Ismāʿīl, the son of the sister of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak who said: Amongst my acquaintances there was a man from al-Azad who carried the kunyah49 Abū al-Yaqẓān who was a lettered, delightful young man. He passionately desired the daughter of his paternal uncle, but his a+airs had fallen into disorder. I saw him one day buying an instrument of travel, so I asked him, “O Abū Yaqẓān! What is it you are doing?” He replied, “I have resolved to trod my own path and take o+ in any direction where true worth is to be had, so that He might release me or I die.” Then he began to recite, saying: Therefore, I took leave of those I love, though the heart remains unchanged. I have parted from loved ones in search of simplicity; And she, crying over the separation. I said, “This feeling you must contain! “For death is much sweeter than taking up poverty. “I will carve out a living, or die in a land “In which the patter of tears washes over the grave.” 34) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ahwāzī, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Hāshimī, who cites ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Zuhrī, who cites his father who said: Abū Jaʿfar grew desirous of a woman, biding his time for %fty years and then marrying her. However, he did not realize how to approach her until she taught him. Then it was said to him, “What have you learned from your passion for her?” He said, “I used to see the moon on her countenance as better than that on the countenances of others.” 35) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ahwāzī, who cites ʿAlī al-Qamr, who heard Ibn Munādhir al-Baṣrī say: ʿIshq is more delightful than a morsel of sugar, then it becomes an object of the bowels. By Allāh, the people of ʿishq in times past were most certainly more chaste in lowering their gaze and guarding their virtue than the people of “devotion” in our current time. 36) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Masrūq, who cites Ayūb al-ʿAṭṭār who said: I heard Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith while he was listening to a young man who had been permitted fame recite, and he said, “Who has permitted this?” It was said, “This is so-and-so.” Bishr - may Allāh have mercy on him - then said, “A lack of circumspection is unbelief.”

49 The kunyah is a nominal form used to assert lineage, either ascribed or described, and can frequently be referential to someone's character, as is the case here; this kunyah translates to “Father of Wakefulness.” For a working de%nition, see: Hugh Kennedy. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 2nd Ed. Pearson Longman: London (2004), p. xiii.

37) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī, who cites Ayūb al-ʿAṭṭār who said: Our companions bought a garment, and they proceeded one day to show it to Bishr, who asked, “For how much did you buy it?” We said, “For %fty dirhams.” He responded, “Quite inexpensive. From whom did you buy it?” We said, “From so-and-so.” He asked, “How much did you allow him to pro%t?” We said, “Two dirhams.” He ordered, “Return it to him,” to which we responded, “O Abū Naṣr! Did you not say that it was inexpensive?” He replied, “Yes. However, he is pleased with his own gain and is a miser. I say: Do not purchase from a miser!” 38) We cite Abū Shuʿayb ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī, who cites Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bābultī, who cites Ayūb ibn Nuhayk Abū Khallād al-Ḥalbī al-Zuhrī - Mawlā al-Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ - on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ who said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar , who heard the Prophet of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – had gone to visit an ill Abū Salamah and he heard the words of Umm Salamah – Allāh have mercy on her – while she was crying. So, the Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him refrained from entering until he heard her speak, rendering him tearful with the Book of Allāh to Him all might and majesty. She said: “And the torpor of death shall bring forth the Truth: this was the thing from which you were trying to escape!" So he entered and then bestowed peace, and said, “May Allāh replace your loss, Umm Salamah.” Thereupon, he exited with Abū Bakr – may Allāh be pleased with him – who said to him, “O Apostle of Allāh, I saw that you were loth to enter because they were mourning the dead.” He replied, “I do not enter any house in which there is mourning, nor that with a black dog.” 39) We cite ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan, who cites Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bābultī, who cites Ayyūb ibn Nuhayk, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ that he heard Ibn ʿUmar say: I heard that the Prophet – peace and blessings be upon him – approached a cloth merchant, from whom he purchased a shirt for four dirhams, which he left wearing. When he set out from amongst the Anṣār there was a man who said to him, “O Apostle of Allāh! Clothe me in a shirt from Paradise, may God provide you raiment!” Muḥammad then removed the shirt and clothed the man in it, then returned to the cloth merchant and purchased from him another shirt for four dirhams, so that two dirhāms remained. Later he happened upon a bondwoman in his path crying and said, “What is it that makes you weep?” She said, “Oh Apostle of Allāh, give my family two dirhams that I might buy some cha+50 with them.” He gave her the two remaining dirhams, and then she turned her back and began to cry, so Muḥammad said, “What is it that makes you weep when you already have the two dirhams?” She said, “I fear that they will strike me.” He then
50 The Arabic here reads daqīq-an mahlik-an. Daqīq denotes &our which has already been milled, and mahlik signi%es a type of wheat which grows in desolate (mahlikah) or low-rainfall areas. The Arabian Peninsula has long been a wheat producer, mostly of the triticum durum variety. Goods which are mahlik are due to expire (al-Kahf 59) or of low initial quality; this, combined with the fact that the woman is begging passersby for money to buy the product, would indicate that this is one of the cheapest types of wheat to be found in Medinan markets.

walked with her to her family and bestowed peace. He later returned twice and bestowed peace each time, until they knew his voice. He returned a third time and a fourth bestowing peace, and the family returned it and he said, “Have you heard the %rst part of salām?” They said, “Yes, but we have wanted that you give us more than this greeting. I swear by my mother and my father, what is it that caused you to speak in such an unseemly manner?” He said, “This woman feared that you would hit her.” Her master said, “She is free to do what pleases Allāh, may He be thanked for your walking with her!” The Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – then began to evangelize him concerning eternal reward and Paradise, and then said, “God has certainly blessed this partnership! May Allāh clothe his Prophet in a shirt, and likewise a man from the Anṣār; and may Allāh release him from scrutiny. And may praise be to Allāh, who has apportioned all this to us through His power. 40) We cite Abū Muslim Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who cites ʿAṣmah ibn Sulaymān al-Jazzār, who cites Ḥāzim ibn Marwān - Mawlā Banī Hāshim – on the authority of ʿAmārah, on the authority of Thawr, on the authority of Khālid ibn Maʿdān, on the ultimate authority of Muʿādh (ibn Jabal) who said: The Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – witnessed the wedding of a man from amongst his Companions. There, he dispensed some money saying, “It is for apportionment, kindness, well wishes for a safe journey, and an abundance of Allāh's favor. May He bless you all, and may you hasten to His table!” And he produced a drum, striking it, while the tables o+ered their welcome, upon them fruit and sugar, which he sprinkled about. The people clasped their hands and the Apostle of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him – said to them, “What is the matter that you do not take advantage of this?” They said, “O Apostle of Allāḥ, have not you forbidden us from sacking?” He replied, “I have only stopped you from sacking army encampments; as for weddings, this does not apply.” And he drew them close, and they drew close to him. 41) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Masrūq, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn who said: I heard ʿAlī ibn Māhān al-Majūsī often used to host people and would say, “It used to be said that the most harmful thing for the guest is that the house's owner be satis%ed.” 42) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥamad, who cites Muḥammad who said that Yaḥyā ibn Mahān said the following: It used to be said that part of the honor of hospitality is receiving the guest with gladness, a cheerful face, and goodly speech so as to entertain him with %ne conversation, prevent feelings of bashfulness, and meet his need for food. 43) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Husayn, who cites Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar alJazzār who said: Fuḍayl ibn al-ʿAyyāḍ saw what the ḥadīth transmitters were doing, and said, “Carefully, O heirs to

the Prophets!51 Do not be like that!” 44) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad , who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites al-Qāsim ibn Abī Saʿīd, who cites a son of al-Misʿar ibn Kaddām, on the authority of Mālik ibn Mighwal who said: If not for that which the believers contemplate concerning the boundless generosity of Allāh – to Him all might and majesty – toward them after death, then their vigor in this world would be split and their earthly forms would be torn asunder. 45) We cite Aḥmad, who cites al-Qāsim ibn ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad, who cites Suwayd ibn ʿAmr who said: If I hoped to live for yet a month then you would see me having come pliantly, and yet how could I even hope for that? I have been shown the tattered clouds [of the Day of Judgement] as they cover all living creatures at all hours of the night and day. 46) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ahwāzī, who cites Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Qazzāz al-ʿĀbid, who heard al-Aṣmaʿī say: The son of an Arab woman died and she stood watch over his grave while al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās – may Allāh have mercy upon them – stood by her. They said to her, “Return [to your life], “ and she responded, “By Allāh, I say that I shall not abandon a loved one!” Then she said, “May Allāh have mercy upon you, my son, by Allāh! But by Allāh, your possessions were not meant for your tribe, nor was your task suited for your courage. Then she said: Man welcomes that which brings him no harm. Were it a wickedness, powerless to stop it is his arm. 47) We cite Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Ahwāzī, who cites Rūḥ ibn Salamah al-Warrāq, who said that al-Qāsim ibn ʿAmr alʿAbqarī said: The son of a Arab woman was taken, and she left each day to the cemetery and put her hand on his tomb, and eulogized him, saying: Because you were a diversion to the eyes, a contentment to behold You became an in%rmity for the unblemished hearts. Pay my joy no heed, as Your Day of Judgement is where I shall truly comprehend; And surely tomorrow I will be with the people of these tombs.

51 For a full discussion of the development and rami%cations of this attribution of spiritual genealogy see: Michael Cooperson. Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of Maʾmūn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2000), especially Ch. 3 as concerns ascetics.

48) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad al-Fawzī, who heard al-Aṣmaʿī say: I passed by a gaunt yet soft-skinned woman, tall with re%ned looks and sinewy, as though she were a vein of gold in silver. Close by her was her companion and many rich garments; and she was at the grave crying while the companion said: O Occupant of the grave! You were joined to me as though a malady, The eye coursing tears across time, over&owing. My woe prolonged, I hold out no more hope. Your shackle: pleasures of the body and of gaming. al-Aṣmāʿī said, “Then she fell upon the grave in a swoon. She came to after a moment and began to grieve for herself, saying: O Soul! How did he grow old? He for whom alternated the cold of winter and the heat of summer, blazing. Or, how does the sense of he who passed return? Love, bond, and beautiful face interred. 49) We cite Aḥmad, who cites ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Naṣībī who said: al-Aṣmaʿī said, “I passed by a woman while she was crying over her grave, saying: If only I knew how I came to be interred completely, and what has now become of my fortune. A portion of it had removed, rendering the whole old and grey, Making bereft that which was prosperous. He said, “I left her and there passed a long moment.” He said, “Then, suddenly, I came upon her crying at the lowest point of the area, upon which she had pitched a tent. She was blind and crippled, crying, and saying in her weeping: There died before you many a tribe, your tyranny spread upon them. Longer lasting is their loss – heard not, seen not. Yet, you left nothing behind for me – heard not, seen not – Except wretchedness, the painful a+air of life in embitteredness. 50) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, who cites ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaddād said, “I entered the graveyard of the Banū ʿĀmir tribe and I called out to

them: Dwellers of the Grave! Made equal amongst you are The son of the weak, the high-ranking lord. Where are the kings, sons of kings? Where is he who proved himself in this realm a tireless defender? Where are the energetic charges? Where their rapport? Where is the deserving one? Not this disgrace. Where are those who accept the burden of worship Whose blood boils at a wicked act? Where are those who hold themselves in high regard, who realize their excellence And ascend the highest peaks without need of a guide? He said, “Then I heard a speaker whose voice I detected but whose presence I could not discern say: Death whittled them down to merely a remainder, they of Jamar, of Jawf, the Najd, and Raqd.52 Worms crawled into the cavities of their sages, And I heard the earth's vermin in my body. How many from Aka+ had their &esh scattered? Their joints the Asʿadī sundered. 51) We cite Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Zayd al-Ṣāʾigh in Mekkah, who cites Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, who cites Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who cites Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar on the authority of his mother, Labābah, the daughter of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās who said: I used to visit my grandfather Ibn ʿAbbās every Friday before his eyesight weakened, and I listened to him read his muṣḥaf53 when he came upon this āyah: “Truly, the perpetrators are gone
52 These are the names of regions in the Yemen; al-Jamar, unique amongst those mentioned, only became an administrative unit only after the Islamic conquests. See, Daniel Varisco. “Agriculture in al-Hamdānī’s Yemen: A Survey from Early Islamic Geographical Texts,” Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 52 (2009), p. 388. 53 ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (d. 67/687) was Muḥammad's cousin on the paternal side and a highly signi%cant %gure in the early days of Islam, writing one of the %rst Qurʾānic tafsīrs (exegesis) and relating 1660 ḥadīths. A muṣḥaf was and is the name for a complete text of the Qurʾān, often – but not necessarily – consisting of bound pages or quires; see: Adam Gacek. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Leiden: Brill (2009), pp. 216-22. Debates about the date when the Qurʾān was %rst written down continue to evolve, but Behnam Sadeghi in The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur’ān of the Prophet (%rst presented at the Colloquium on the Early History of the Qur’ā n, Stanford University, July 30-31, 2009) has calculated the probability of the Ṣanʿāʾ codex being written before 55/675 at 99.2%. If this khabar is authentic, it would serve as interesting corroborating evidence for the existence of physical muṣḥafs during this early period.

astray and mad. On Judgement Day they will be dragged through the Fire on their faces, hearing “Taste the caress of Hell! We have created all things in proportion and measure. Our command is a carried out instantly, like the twinkling of an eye.” He said to me, “O my daughter! I knew those to whom this āyah was directed - what they were like, and what has become of them now. 52) We cite Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Masrūq, who cites Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Barjalānī, who cites Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr on the authority of ʿAbād ibn al-Walīd al-Qurashī who said: ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd used to come to his companions with dinars and dirhams, and one time he even stripped his clothes o+ to give to one of them, saying, “I do not give any of this a second look.”54 The end, all praise be to Allāh alone. We entreat: May there be peace and blessings for our sovereign Muḥammad, his family, and his Companions. Arabic Edition: Comments on the Manuscript Al-Fawāʾid has been previously documented in Brockelmann, who lists a Fawāʾid work for alKhuldī at the Damascene Ẓāhiriyya library in ma˘g. 40 (eb. 255);55 Sezgin references a Ẓāhiriyyah copy under the title al-Fawāʾid wa-z-zuhd wa-r-raqāʾiq wa-l-marāthī under ma˘g. 45 (32a-62b, 6 Jh. H).56 It is probable that Brockelmann and Sezgen did identify the same MS, but in an index of its own holdings completed in 1978 – eleven years after the completion of Sezgin's survey - the Ẓāhiriyyah library did not list the MS under its taṣawwuf holdings and only four titles of fawāʾid collections appear, none of which could be confused for the present work.57 The amount of detailed description given by Sezgin underscores his familiarity with the MS, but unfortunately the the status of this Ẓāhiriyyah copy is, at present, uncertain. Sezgen identi%es this mysterious Ẓāhiriyyah MS as identical to two copies in Cairo: ḥadīth 1558B, S. 258-68 (8. Jh. H.), and from it a copy makhṭūṭāt Suppl. II, 198 Nr. 26518B (12 +. 1351 H.). It is Sezgin's second copy used to produce this edition, preserved today in the Dār al-Kutub al-Qawmiyya al-Maṣriyya Bāb al-Khalq facilities under makhṭūṭah 25618B, ḥadīth 1557B as the fourth part (juzʾ) of a larger series of similarly themed works copied by Maḥmūd ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Fakhr al-Dīn; no description or accounting of this collection is available. Although the entirety of the series is in need of further examination, comments will here be limited to the MS of al-Fawāʾid wal-Zud wal-Raqāʾiq wal-Marāthī wa ghayru-hā.
54 The Arabic here reads barham; the meaning as given by al-Aṣmʿī is literally “an extended gaze,” and does not translate cleanly. 55 Brockelmann GAL, Supplementband I Zu. S. 200 10. Kap Die Mystik. 56 Fuat Sezgin. GDAS. Vol. 1, p. 661. 57 Fihris Makhṭūṭāt Dār al-Kutub al-Ẓahiriyyah: Maṭbūʿāt: al-taṣawwuf. Majmaʿ al-Lughah al-ʿArabiyyah bi-Dimashq al-juzʾ althānī min ḥarf zīn ilā ḥarf mīm wuḍiʿa Muḥammad Riyāḍ al-Ṣaliḥ. Matbaʿal-Ḥijāz bi-Dimashq (1398/1978), pp. 417-21.

A previous edition of the MS was produced by Abū Maryam Magdī Fatḥī al-Sayyid.58 Sayyid's edition furnishes the reader with a short introduction on al-Khuldī's life and a phenomenal critical apparatus for the isnads, but the text is riddled with errors and glaring omissions: often, entire sentences are left out and the reader regularly encounters replaced names in the isnad without comment.

General remarks: - This edition of al-Fawāʾid the manuscript found in the Cairo Dār al-Kutub. In instances of the text’s illegibility or obscurity variant readings from outside sources have been incorporated when available. Throughout, a thorough comparison has been made between this edition and al-Sayyid’s 1989 edition. All textual notes detailing the discrepancies between the two editions are located in the endnotes. - The copy of the MS is in very good condition, owing to the relative lateness of its copying in 1932. - The script is very legible, although some cramping of the writing renders the text di4cult in very few places. The text shows no e+ects of water damage or other de%ciencies. The MS is paginated, comprising 24 pages overall. The cover page is counted as page 1 and displays the Dār al-Kutub record number, a record of transfer (166/1952), and a seal. The colophon appears on p. 24, containing information about the source MS from which the extant MS was copied, the samāʿ certi%cate for the source MS, the dates of copying for the source and extant MSS, and an illegible seal similar to the one on the cover page. - The actual text of al-Fawāʾid has 22 pages, each page measuring 11.5 cm by 15 cm. Each page except the %rst contains 21 lines; the %rst page contains 17 lines, the result of a large lacunae between the basmalah and the isnad for the %rst account. - al-Fawāʾid contains 52 accounts all of which are sourced. The primary method of sourcing is an isnad, although two accounts merely begin with qāl (#26, #31). – A major source for the transmission of the accounts is the sufī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Masrūq al-Ṭūsī, who appears in more than half (28/52) of the isnads. Orthography of the MS: – Isnads are reproduced faithfully in the entirety of this edition, free of abbreviations not occurring in the text. Those abbreviations which do occur are: !"‫ أ‬for anbāʾnā (#1, passim); !$% for ḥaddathanā (#2, passim); and &$% for ḥaddathanī (#27, passim). Their elongated forms are common – throughout the text. Accounts are not numbered in the manuscript, but the end of each is indicated by a line which extends to the left-hand side of the page; the isnad for the following account begins on the next

line. The hamzah is regularly written, especially as al-hamzat al-qataʿ in ‫ أ*) (&ء‬and +,‫أ‬. It does not always appear in the middle of the word, especially ‫رأى‬. The appearance of hamzah in ‫ أن‬or ‫ إن‬is most capricious. The singular inde%nite mafʿūl bi-hi is irregularly marked in the alif tanwīn when it occurs before the preposition min; in only two of these occurrences is the tanwīn provided (#27, 39). We have recorded the tanwīn as it occurs in the text. An erroneous alif fāṣilah marking the manṣūb singular of the ghāʾib occurs one time (#26). The letter‫ ذ‬is particularly di4cult to identify throughout and often appears without its diacritic (#4, ‫زاذان‬, passim.). The letters ‫ ة ق ت‬frequently appear with their diacritics stacked vertically above the letter. See, respectively: #17 (7ُ9:;‫ ;) رأ‬and #12 (‫ ) =)آن‬and #43 (>%‫)ور‬. The orthographic convention of writing @,‫ ا‬before the name of a mother is followed in rendering ‫ل‬+9BC‫راء ا‬DEC‫@ ا‬,‫ ; ا‬this occurs only once (#6). The enclitic ‫ ه‬to mark the male singular ghaʾib is never closed.